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Pac-Man (Atari 2600)
In 1982, Atari released a now infamous port of ''Pac-Man'' to their Atari 2600 system. The game was a massive success, selling over seven million copies, making it the best-selling cartridge on the 2600 - in retrospect, however, the game has been heavily criticized for its differences from the arcade original, suffering from poor controls, graphics, and sounds. Gameplay The core gameplay of the original remains the same, but there are many key differences: * The game uses a flicker effect to allow more sprites on the screen at a time. This can make the game hard to play if it is not on original 2600 hardware, as the flickering isn't handled well on more current devices. * The maze design is different, as are the sound effects and scoring system (going by intervals of 1, instead of 10 like the arcade does). * The ghosts always immediately pour out of the center box, even on the early levels (which is not the case with the arcade version). They also do not have four distinct personalities, meaning their movements are randomized. * The dots Pac-Man eats were changed to dashes and renamed to “video wafers”. There is also only one fruit, which is called a “vitamin”. * The Escape Route (tunnel) runs from the top and bottom of the screen, rather than the sides. * An extra life is earned with the clearing of each maze. Also, 16 "games" were included on the cartridge, which are really just slight variations of the normal game mode (Note: the box says there are only eight game variations, but each one has a variation for two players). Scoring *Eat video wafer–1 point *Eat power pill–5 points *Eat vitamins–100 points *Eat ghosts–20, 40, 80, 160 points (in succession) Game Variations A slow or a fast-moving Pac-Man can be chosen. Variations with ghost speeds can be chosen as well, due to their ratings of having “crawl”, “walking”, “jogging” or “running” speeds, along with expert and childrens’ versions. Putting the Difficulty Switch in the A position cuts down the time the ghosts stay blue, and vitamins don’t appear onscreen for as long as when the Difficulty Switch is in the B position. Trivia *The game was rereleased on the Atari Retro Handheld: Pac-Man Edition by Blaze in December 2019, marking its first official release in 37 years. *For a long time, it was believed that Pac-Man for the 2600 released on April 3rd, 1982, due to that date marking Atarinational Pac-Man Day. After lots of digging by historians, it turns out the game was actually released about three weeks earlier, on March 16, 1982. *Atari made more cartridges for Pac-Man than they had already sold consoles. This was done because Atari was counting on people who hadn't yet purchased an Atari 2600 buying one just to play Pac-Man on. This strategy theoretically did work, but not to the extent Atari had hoped it would. *''Pac-Man'' and E.T. - The Extra Terrestrial (another universally disliked Atari 2600 game) became the scapegoats blamed for the downfall of Atari, and to an extent, the Video Game Crash of 1983. However, while E. T. has gotten much more blame than Pac-Man has, it was Atari's actions regarding Pac-Man that put them in jeopardy in the first place. *The level "Dungeon" in Pac-Man Championship Edition DX is based on this game. *Pac-Man's enemies were originally known as monsters. The 2600 version called them ghosts in a way to explain the flickering, which is the name they've stuck with ever since. *There is a bug in the game where if Pac-Man dies at the top of the Escape Route while moving down, he can move through walls while the death sequence plays. *Originally, the game was to feature this very strange design for the boxart. Atari thought it would cause confusion, and could've scared children, so it was changed to the classic circle design. *Several future Pac-Man titles, such as Pac-Man: Adventures in Time and ''Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures'', feature the Atari 2600 version's sound effects in certain (minor) parts of the game. Gallery Screenshots 2600pac1.png 2600pac2.png 2600pac3.png|B&W TV mode Artwork Pacman12.jpg|Prototype artwork 2600artwork-0.jpg|Final artwork, version 1 2600artwork-1.jpg|Final artwork, version 2 Ataripacman.png|Pac-Man Ataripacman hole.png|Pac-Man and Ghosts Ataripacman ghosts.png|Ghosts External links * AtariAge Pac-Man page for links to (mostly negative) reviews, among other information Category:Games Category:Pac-Man Games Category:Console Games Category:Pac-Man variations